Saturday, September 29, 2012

Our school went all out for Family Reading Night this fall.
The theme was Fantasy & Fairy Tales.

In the 3rd grade classrooms you could read fairy tales & make crowns & princess hats, the fifth grade team put together a hilarious mad lib version of Little Red Ridding Hood. In the fourth grade hall you could visit the magical land of Narnia to make your own wardrobe with a winter scene, or Hogwarts School for a fun trivia game and some coloring. Enjoy some photos from our fun event!

Yes, there are a lot of pics of the Harry Potter portion of the hallway, but that's because it was my project! Those banners took 3 Harry Potter films to finish.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

This picture was drawn by a 10 year old student in my class on the day after the September 11 attacks. I was a new teacher and didn't know how to handle this life changing world event. We talked about it as a class, about how we felt, and in order to help the children express their feelings about the confusing state of the world that day I let them draw pictures. I love that Rebecca chose to draw the moment BEFORE the world changed, instead of the fiery horrible images that have been since burned into our memories. This was the one piece of art I kept from that day.

This year after discussing Patriot Day with my current students (none of whom were even born in September of 2001) I asked them to write letters to people who were affected by the tragedy. Many of them chose to write letters to the first responders (firefighters, policemen, EMTS), some chose to write to the soldiers who were called to protect our country, others even wrote notes of consolation to victims' families & friends. All were very heartfelt & poignant. They made me cry with their compassion for these people they never knew, for this tragedy that happened before their time.

Here are the words of one young student today:

Sorry about 9/11/01, it was very tragic for America. It was super sad. I hope everybody knows about that tragic moment in 2001. Every September I remind my class about this tragic day, since kindergarten. Last year my teacher told us about it. Since the day it happened America has been honoring the people who help keep us safe and our country safe also. Those poor people who were on the planes and in the towers. My family always tells me the story of 9/11/01. Last year we built paper statues of the firemen, EMTS, cops, & soldiers. ~Dalton~

I've seen many images today posted in remembrance of the victims of 9/11.
I found this one of the most powerful.
Simple, beautiful, poetic.